2016- Arthur Miller's Centennial Year
If Arthur Miller were still with us in this centennial year of his birth, I think he would be especially pleased to see the Signature Theater's wonderful revival of Incident at Vichy.
The 2016 revival was a specal revelation for theatergoers below a certain age. The drama did have a Broadway premiere at the now defunct ANTA Theater in 1964 but for just 32 performances. Miller adapted the play for television, which featured Rene Auberjonois as Monceau the actor and Harris Yulin as LeDuc the doctor, but that was back in 1973.
No doubt, if he could have seen all these celebratory productions Miller would also have been intrigued with the high profile British-cast Broadway revival of A View From the Bridge. . . .also the Audiences Castillo Theater's presentation of the famous Death of a Salesman.

The operatic View. . . has been tagged as a Miller classic and as such has enjoyed frequent productions but none like the one that marked the Broadway debut of Belgian director Ivo Van Hove who's noted for his bold deconstructionist approach to classic plays. His production thus had neither scenery, props or costumes, but plenty of emotional fireworks. This new Broadway darling had a second Broadway outing in the same season season— a riveting new version of The Crucible

Actually the now famous and often produced View. . . wasn't an instant hit. Its first permutation was as a one-act verse drama entitled A Memory of Two Mondays which flopped, prompting Miller to turn out a 2-act revision. The current version's British credentials are especially valid given that the 2-act revival first premiered in London's West End under the direction of Peter Brook. It's this version that's the one with which audiences are most familiar today. The Vanhovian approach's chief reinvention is to present the story with completely naturalistic, almost cinematic, performances but framed non-naturalistically (Don't look for the original Brooklyn setting). Still, outstanding as the cast is, the actors have their work cut out for them in terms of speaking authentically and consistently with American accents. The on stage seats, not original with Van Hove, are likely to be extremely popular even when they're no longer lower-priced as was the case during previews.

Trademarks Of Miller's Plays
In an interview after his first big success (All My Sons), Miller declared that "In all my plays
and
books I try to take settings and dramatic situations from life which involve real questions of right
and wrong." Following are key dramatic devices used to achieve this mission:

The idealist who pays too much for his inability to compromise. All My Sons'
Chris Keller's insists
on dredging up a past that holds unbearable truths. Victor Frank in The Price,
sacrificed his
career dreams to support his father but his virtue has brought the additional cost of resentment
and the crippling inability to move forward when given the opportunity.

The Great Depression. The Great depression bankrupted Miller's father in real life,
Victor
Frank's father in The Price, the dozens of individuals and families who wander through
the
scenes of The American Clock. In All My Sons, the small time industrialist Joe
Keller extricates
himself from the cusp of late Depression bankruptcy by wartime profiteering.

The theme of man's responsibility to his fellow man. This was most strongly expressed
in All My
Sons, where one man's greed haunts him in the worst possible way -- in the death of his
son.

The Guilt of the survivor. Chris Keller, unlike his father, bears no responsibility for the
death of
his brother and other victims of the war. Yet he is haunted by the fact that he's alive while others
died.. This theme of the guilt of those who escape, dates back to the playwright's first play
(and instant flop), The Man Who Had All the Luck and recurs in After the Fall.

An ordinary man's tragedy doubling as symbol of a larger societal flaw. The story of
Willie
Loman in Death of a Salesman is a realistic drama about one man's downfall on one
level. On a broader symbolic level it is also an examination of the delusions attendant on the
pursuit of the American dream. A View From the Bridge updates the Greek tragic mode
to depict the downfall
of a Brooklyn dock worker--taken in the context of its time, the 1950s, some audiences also saw
the play as a metaphor for the betrayals associated with such colleagues as Elia Kazan to the the
House Un-American Activities committee's (HUAC) investigation of Communists in
government. Even more specific to those days of Communist witch hunting was The Crucible
which probably escaped being dated precisely because Miller set it in a long-ago historic time
frame.

A Penchant for Big Operatic Speeches.

Sometimes you could actually hear music playing -- and with several of his plays, The Crucible (Robert Ward) and A View from the Bridge, (William Bolcomb) those "arias" actually inspired operas.

Books You Might Want to Read
Miller's plays and other writings are widely anthologized .
This is a selection of the ones we think fans and students would find most Conversations With Miller by Mel GussowThe Portable Arthur Miller. Penguin, 1995, 575 pp. This update of an earlier edition
was
compiled by the playwright and Christopher Bigsby, a Miller scholar. It's a good cross-section of
Miller's 60-year career. Included in full are The Crucible,Death of a Salesman,
and Broken
Glass; also unpublished early works and a newly found radio play.

A View From the Bridge. Viking paperback, 1987. With the play enjoying one of
its most
dynamic productions ever at the Roundabout, (see link to reviewed plays above), we included
this for people who like to read a play before or after seeing a play as well as those who for one
reason or another can't get to this revival.

Timebends : A Life. Penguin, 1995. This is the paperback edition of Miller's very
readable autobiography. It moves from his childhood at the edge of Harlem through his life and
career, failures and
successes-- and includes plenty of portraits of famous people who played walk-on and major
parts in
his life; to name just a few: Marilyn Monroe, Orson Welles, Lucky Luciano, Clark Gable,
Tennessee Williams, John F. Kennedy, Mikhail Gorbachev. . .
Penguin Audio Book edition (2 Cassettes).

The Theater Essays of Arthur Miller Da Capo (paperback), 1996. This reprint
edition is
packed with a wealth of essays including "Tragedy and the Common Man," "The Nature
of Tragedy". . ." Salesman Has a Birthday". . . "Many Writers: Few Plays". . . "Journey
to The &"The American Theater&". . ."On Social Plays". . ."The Family in Modern
Drama". Also included are the introduction to the original edition (by Robert A. Martin), this
expanded Edition (by Steven R. Centola) and a foreword by the playwright titled "Sorting Things
Out." A good value.

Arthur Miller in Conversation. Contemporary Research Press, paperback, 1993.
This
lengthy interview between Steve Centola and Arthur Miller provides the playwright
with ample opportunity to voice his views on playwriting, the state of the theater and
the acting profession. Centola is clearly an admirer and a fine interviewer. The title isn't likely
to be found in your neighborhood book store but it is available to those prepared to wait for their
order to be filled.

Homely Girl, a Life : And Other Stories. Penguin paperback, 128 pp, 1997. In his
long
conversation with Stephen Centola, Miller spoke about his disaffection with playwriting and
intention to do more fiction. This collection of short stories, is newly anthologized but not newly
written. The stories are worth reading but it should be noted that writers who've built their
reputation on the short story (i.e. Pritchett) or short stories and novels (Updike) tend to focus
for
many years on these particular forms. Thus, this book is more interesting for showing another
side of Miller, than as a launching point for a short-story writing career. When you think of
Miller, it's still going to be in terms of his plays.Back to the
top

Quotes From Miller PlaysA
little man makes a mistake and they hang him by the thumbs; the big ones
become ambassadors
--Joe Keller in Act 2, All My Sons.

Once and for all you must know that there's a universe of people outside,
and you're responsible to it. --Chris Keller (to his mother) in Act 3, All My Sons

Since God made everything, and God is Good, why did he make Lucifer?---Arthur Miller

He's not the finest character that ever lived. But he's a
human being, and a terrible thing is happening to him. So attention must be paid. He's not to be
allowed to fall into his grave like an old dog. Attention, attention must be finally paid to such a
person -- Linda Loman, Act 1, Death of a
Salesman.

You can't eat the orange and throw the peel away--a man is not a piece of fruit! Willy, Act
2, Death of a
Salesman.

(A Salesman) He's a man way out there in the blue riding on a smile and a shoeshine. And when
they start not smiling back--that's an earthquake! Charley, Requiem, Death of a
Salesman.

There are times when you want to spread an alarm, but nothing has
happened —-Alfieri, A View from the Bridge, Act
1.

The only thing you can do today without a license is you'll go up
the elevator and jump out the window
--Gregory Solomon in The Price, Act 1
Solomon, the character who brings the play its light touch,
thus amplifies his statement that he is both registered and
licensed as an appraiser

He allowed himself to be wholly known
--Alfieri in Arthur Miller's A View from the Bridge, Act
2.